CD Reviews

Most accessible of early Stereolab

12/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was just given this as a gift to complete a hole in my Stereolab collection. I hit play on the CD player, my jaw hit the table and didn't shut until it was over. If you own an early album by this band (Switched On, Refried Ectoplasm, Transient Random, etc.) and are wondering which one to get next, this is it. If you own later stuff by the band, are wondering what the earlier stuff is like, and don't like too much grit in your pop, this is the one too. Gorgeous drones, lots of repetition, drums and guitars, bilingual lyrics, analog synth washes, this one has it all. Classic Stereolab. Don't wait six years to get this like I did."

Classic Stereolab at its best

eqtweak | San Francisco | 11/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have yet to hear a bad album from Stereolab. This is among their best. Chicks dig it. Your friends will love you for it. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. The only thing better is seeing them live. This isn't recent Stereolab, though, which is cleaner and more bassy. This stuff is pretty raw in comparison, with live drums, bass and guitar, and with layer upon layer of distorted, fuzzed-out Moog synthesizer, and then Latitia Saedler's (sp?) smart voice coming through the mix with some wonderful harmonies and such. Saedler is renowned for her philosophical lyrics, which on this album team up with the music like no other Stereolab album. Awesome!"

Brilliant Pop w/ intelligent subversive political undertones

M. Savoie | Bound Brook, NJ USA | 07/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album, now ten years old, seems more relevant today than ever before, in our world of increasingly corrupt politicians and perverted concepts of "morality."

To get a sense of Stereolab's sound, combine 70's German Krautrock (Neu!, Can, Faust, et al), Velvet Underground, Beach Boys backing vocals, bassanova and samba, space age bachelor pad music inventiveness, Pavement, Suicide, Mouse on Mars meets Tortoise; vintage instruments like farfisa, harmonium, moog, mellotron, vox organ, theremin; Nietsche, Marx and other communist ideas, French literature such as Baudelaire; an occasional pinch of goddess-based leanings; space exploration; and much much more. There is a lot in the mix, and they have never had qualms about blatantly ripping off obscure songs and literature, but they make it all so smooth and palatable and dreamy that it is just too irresistable. Their bag of goodies never seems to run out of vintage ideas from below the surface, and they have become trendsetters for this.

Mars Audiac Quintet, the groop's third full-length, is the album which earned them the rank of the "Moog Terrorists". There are so many delicious layers of organs here! (just listen to track one and feel the 'Three-Dee Melodie'.) Some songs here build up long drones to illustrate a sociopolitical point that we've become too accustomed to not paying attention to our leaders' misuse of power ('Transona Five', 'Anamorphose', 'New Orthophony') while some are pop songs illuminating the same complacency. 'Ping Pong', a title suggesting both a back and forth action and a passive observation from the sidelines, is one of the band's the catchiest pop numbers. As for the lyrics: "There's only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents. There's only millions that die in their bloody wars, it's alright. It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing... Don't worry, be happy, things will get better naturally. Don't worry, shut up, sit down, go with it and be happy." (The 'Don't worry' part is all a sarcastic yet ironic summary of what the public majority actually is doing in the face of denial of social decline.) These sentiments are echoed in 'Outer Accelerator': "In whatever society, there continually will seem to be just a few men keen to rule, overwhelming the majority. We'll assent and allow them to do so." 'Nihilist Assault Troop' deals with our so-called "morality".

As one friend once put it, Tim Gane's drone-pop and Laetitia Sadier's marxist revolutionary lyrics clash in a decidely political irony. While the message is sometimes hidden in lulling drones, sometimes wrapped up in kitschy pop, if you listen closely you will hear them call on you--to wake up and face the music of what is going on.

(Incidentally, about 1/3 of the songs are sung in French; singer/writer Laetitia Sadier is from Paris.)"

Their best CD, and the closest to their live sound

M. Savoie | 04/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've long been a fan of Stereolab and own most of their full-length albums. But time and again, for me, "Mars Audiac Quintet" stands tall as their most cohesive, exciting, listenable work.Whereas their later albums often dip into loungey, vibe-heavy pop territory and their earlier work frequently sinks into screeching passages of pure noise that can tax some listeners, "Mars Audiac" remains Stereolab at their "purest," which is to say, if you've ever been lucky enough to catch them in concert (which I highly recommend), then the energy of this tight, jammy CD is the closest you'll come to duplicating the trance-like experience of seeing them live.For those just starting out with their Stereolab explorations, this is a fine, fine CD to begin your journey with."